The Istana Grounds in Singapore is a very special area of rich history and importance dating back many many years ago, known as the Government House and today the Istana is the official residence of the President of the Republic of Singapore, do check out their official website! Therefore, it is not a tourist destination, however, only on special occasions in a year, the Istana Grounds would be opened up to the public for visiting !

Today is Hari Raya Puasa, one of the public holidays in Singapore and the Istana Grounds opens to the public for visit and attracted great crowds of young and old, locals to tourists, keen to view and enjoy the beautiful greenery and history of Singapore and Istana. I went with my friend Andrew, queued up, cleared the routine security checks and in we went ! There were many people and quite a number of tourists who took the very rare opportunity to visit and learn more about the history.

Inside the Istana Grounds, it was really beautiful with the greenery, on the hills, different trees that were of great vintage and history, beautiful flowers and nice grass fields that were well taken care of. Many activities were there during the Open House, parrots from Bird Park were there to grace the event too and performances by schools and organisations. We went for a tour inside the Istana Grounds buildings and witnessed many great treasures that were gifts for Singapore by many different countries around the world, displayed inside the building, ranging from crystals to paintings, the gifts showed the wonderful friendships and relationships Singapore built over the years with many different countries around the world.

Do check out my other photos of the Istana Open House on my flickr and do visit the Istana during the Open House if the opportunities arise !

The RSAF Open House 2008 was opened to the public from 30th August to 31st August 2008 and the visitors were treated to a great show of aerial display, fun games and carnival, informative display on the modern 3rd Generation Army and Airforce, and last but not least, the displays !

I reached there with my cousin aroudn 1+pm, the weather was good, sunny and bright, although with dark clouds looming in the sky. After clearing the security entrance, we were greeted by the “veterans” of the RSAF, the retired air warriors of the 1st and 2nd Generation. I forgot to take photos of them, I used to train in the UH-1H years ago !

Moving down, turning to the main ground, we were welcomed to the main showground ! Many different fighter jets, transport planes and ground military vehicles were on display. There were many people around especially families with children. They were very keen to sit inside the fighter jet to get a feel of it and were queuing up for it, so were the helicpoters, the Apache AH-64 and Super Puma. Other performances included the arming display for the different fighter jets, precision timing and teamwork.

Inside the hangers, it was turned into an exhibtion ground, showcasing the latest technology used in the RSAF and the history and development of the RSAF, brought back memories when I was a small kid looking at the fighter jets flying in the sky during major events such as NDP. There were also a great sense of pride when I saw how our RSAF had become a global citizen, helping countries around the world in humanitarian relief missions. We had grown a lot in the past 43 years !

The weather soon changed, strong rain and winds hit the RSAF Open House, luckily, we were resting in the stadium gallery, away from the rain. It was heavy and I was afraid that the aerial display would be cancelled. However, it stopped in time and the aerial display proceeded a little bit later instead of the usual stipulated timing.

For the aviation fans, this year 2008 was a great to take many different photos of airplanes. One of my memorable photography moments were taking our F16 Black Knights during this year’s NDP 2008 rehearsals.

I was there at the RSAF Open House 2008 on 30th August 2008 and Black Knight 1 was on display ! It definitely attracted a huge crowd and many of the F16 Black Knights pilots and ground crew were there and they also had a booth to showcase their videos and the names of the performance patterns that they adopted.

Do you remember the HEART shape a.k.a. the LOVE produced by the F16 Black Knights during NDP 2008 ? It is called FLAMING HEART ! They had the performance patterns printed nicely on the boards, do drop by my photo collection of the F16 Black Knights and see the names of their performance patterns !